Field of the Art
The present disclosure generally relates to management of devices having a microprocessor and, more particularly, to management systems including adaptive device-initiated polling.
Background and Relevant Art
Remote connectivity to equipment in the field has become a common practice for many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). The equipment is frequently distributed over a broad geographical region and often involves hundreds if not thousands or tens of thousands of individual devices. A centralized server system is often used to provide connectivity between the OEMs and the equipment. This connectivity allows the OEM to be much faster in resolving problems with the equipment, in part at least because a centralized server system allows the OEM to manage the devices from one or a few locations rather than at the site of each piece of equipment. Such an approach allows the OEMs to be more proactive in preventing problems or be more proactive in addressing problems before they become serious. Remote connectivity also enables OEMs to provide many new value added services, such as automatic consumables replenishment to their customers.
One very common hurdle that companies wishing to deploy remotely connected devices face is the network infrastructure that is deployed at the customer site. Security measures such as firewalls and Internet proxies as well as common IT infrastructure mechanisms such as Network Address Translation (NAT) represent a barrier for direct connectivity to the equipment. In particular, to provide direct connections between all the equipment and the centralized server system would often be prohibitively expensive. As a result, many approaches have been proposed that involve use of the Internet or other global area networks. One difficulty with such approaches is that security measures frequently block access to on-site devices by external systems.
A common technique for overcoming this barrier is to use device initiated polling. A device performing device-initiated polling typically resides within a firewall. The device sends a polling call to a system that is outside the firewall. An initial polling call often identifies the device and includes any number of parameters from the device, such as consumable levels, operating statistics, or other information. When the external system receives a polling call from the device, the external system services the call and sends a reply back to the device inside the firewall. The reply may include a request that the polling device return additional information back to the polling device during a later polling period. By sending the request from within the firewall, a two-way connection is opened through the firewall between the device inside the firewall and the external system. Frequently, when the external system seeks to initiate contact with the device without first having received a request from the device, the firewall disallows the contact.
Current techniques frequently use a pre-set polling rate that may be changed by a user with appropriate permissions. Users are presented with a challenging decision between bandwidth utilization and responsiveness of the device. If the polling rate is set too low, a user may have to wait up to the entire polling period in order to contact the device to begin performing diagnostics or data capture. If the polling rate is set too high, the device is responsive, but may use too much enterprise system bandwidth adding to the ongoing telecommunications cost of the system and posing scalability problems as the number of devices grows.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.